Men's Tennis Downed by No. 31 Swarthmore in CC Semifinals

Dais Nakayama (left) and Josh Moskovitz (right)

May 06, 2017

SWARTHMORE, Pa. – The Haverford College men's tennis team got a win at No. 1 doubles from Josh Moskovitz and Dais Nakayama but was unable to find any other team points in a 5-1 defeat against rival Swarthmore during the Centennial Conference semifinals on Saturday. The nationally-ranked Garnet advanced to Sunday's championship match with the victory.

The pairing of Nakayama and Moskovitz took down their nationally-ranked opponents in a tiebreak to provide a thrilling finish to doubles action. Haverford's No. 1 team earned a break late to get the match back on serve and held to force a tiebreak. In the extra points, the Fords' top pairing won 7-3 for the first team point of the day.

Haverford nearly had a second point in doubles as the No. 2 pairing of Raja Arul and David Kong were looking to replicate their win from the regular season meeting. However, the Garnet's middle pairing earned a pair of breaks late in that match to pull out a 9-7 victory. Swarthmore won No. 3 doubles by an 8-3 score.

In singles, Swarthmore won each of the first sets across all six matches to put the Fords in comeback mode. However, before a comeback bid was possible Nos. 1-3 all clinched straight set wins for the Garnet as the match was only played to decision. The toughest battle of the afternoon in singles came with Eli Phelps dropping a hard-fought tiebreak in the fourth singles slot of his first set.

Men's tennis was making its 11th appearance in the Centennial Conference semifinals during the past 12 seasons. The Fords finish their season with a team record of 10-9 overall. Seven of those defeats came at the hands of nationally-ranked opposition. The 2017 season marked the sixth straight year that Haverford has won at least 10 matches.